A House Upon a Rock
by peachandbetty
Summary: "Quatre told me that in order to find peace, you to have to go where peace is. It's different for everybody." He wasn't entirely surprised when blue eyes and long, golden hair flashed across his memory. Relena was, after all, as literal a definition of peace as it got. 1XR (some mention of 3x4). Multi-chapter.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first multi-part for Gundam Wing. I've been planning it and writing it for ages but, because I'm a flake when it comes to long-term commitments, I haven't posted until now when Calenheniel gave me the green light confidence to do so. So, please enjoy reading it as I really enjoyed writing it. I'm already ahead by a few chapters so I'll try to be prompt with installments.

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A House Upon a Rock

Part 1 – Location Location

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Were it not for the hail of bullets and the smog of exploding mobile suits, Heero suspected he might have enjoyed Earth a lot more than he had during the war. The air in this particular mountain village was crisp and clean, almost entirely devoid of the presence of man or machinery and it was oddly therapeutic. Comparatively the air in the colonies was stale and everything seemed cramped and soulless. He would regret his past inability to enjoy the Earth for what it was but this unexpected and appreciated outcome of his post-war travels seemed to make up for it.

He drained the last of his tea and placed it back on the small bamboo tea tray that had been left for him by the keeper of the small inn. Japan had proven to be fruitless in terms of finding what he needed but he had, at least, gotten an indirect sense of closure through the exploration of his roots. He would never be someone's grandson, or nephew; he knew that now. Everything that Aiden Lowe was expired when he'd been given a new name and in hindsight, it was rather foolish to pursue that train of thought as a method for coping with peacetime life.

But what he had found were small things, new things, that would be forever built into his design. He liked tea, he discovered. It was refreshing and lacked the strong tastes he tended to avoid in his palette. Japanese cuisine as a whole fit that bill, using fresh ingredients and simple tastes, though the mystery of the existence of umeboshi still eluded him. He discovered how to meditate, something Wufei had sworn upon but he had previously scoffed at as a pointless use of the placebo. It had lead Heero to wonder just how much rage the other pilot had been bottling up _before _he'd taken to it, but Heero had no doubts of the effects it had on himself. The clarity of mind that came from it was eerily similar to the place he'd set aside for himself in the battlefield, a place where higher things governed over emotion and sentiment but with none of the adrenaline and red hot blood.

But, for all the novelty of new experiences in his life, he felt entire galaxies away from what he had expected to be at the age of twenty one. He knew peace time would be difficult. He'd fought for it not expecting to live to see it and now he was stuck between one plane of existence and another. He wasn't a soldier, not anymore. He no longer looked over his shoulder, or slept in a sort of shallow doze or kept his hand hovering over where his gun would be. But he sat and watched people milling around him, going about their lives and he felt so very far apart from them, and completely unsure and unable to force himself into that mould. Nothing felt right, and for all the progress he'd made in his mental wellbeing, he couldn't forget that the first sixteen years of his life were nothing short of extraordinary.

None of the other pilots were people you could particularly call well-adjusted. Even with the more sociable among them, Duo had a lifetime of death and trauma that would follow him around forever and it had resulted in the slow demise of his first adult relationship. Quatre was lucky to have found Trowa under such incredible circumstances; romance wasn't a common by-product of war, especially between soldiers, but he knew that everything they did to maintain that relationship was built on hardship and endless obstacles. But for all they'd been through, he didn't doubt that after one's death at the hand of the other, they would tough it out regardless of what life threw at them.

The rustle of a paper bag being plopped down in front of his disrupted his train of thoughts.

Trowa took a seat opposite him on the old wooden bench and began digging through it for a portion of steamed dumplings and Heero gratefully took his share. He hadn't expected to find Trowa in Japan of all places but as soon as she'd caught wind that the circus was in town he'd sent the other pilot a message on an email address only the four of them knew to use. He wasn't sure why he felt the need, but his friend's presence alone seemed to make all the difference to his restlessness. Trowa had a calming presence about him that seemed to induce logic where needed.

"It's not often we get messages from you," the taller man stated, taking a small bite from a sticky morsel, "Duo will be jealous."

Heero ignored the jibe and took a bite of his own. It was true he wasn't the best at keeping contact but in his defence, Duo wrote enough for the lot of them and, as was the case now, he wasn't sure what to say.

"How are things progressing with the files you found?" Trowa filled in the silence for him, and Heero inwardly thanked him. Trowa wasn't the most vocal of people himself but whatever he did say was often well times and on the mark.

"Dead ends," he supplied, taking a sip of fresh new tea and warming his hands on the ceramic, "this village was the last of them. Nobody here remembers my mother or knows about her clan. From what I gather, marrying a foreigner is nigh on a criminal offence here anyway. She would have been forgotten on principle."

Trowa nodded and took a sip of his own drink before his face twisted into a slight grimace. Heero had warned him; coffee here was not as he knew it. "Earth have some strange customs left over from history," he said, covering his coffee back up and setting it aside, "East Asia more than most. Wufei told me once that half of the traditions he had been raised on were never actually explained to him. I don't think people themselves know why they do what they do."

Heero nodded his agreement. Earth was a world apart from the colonies in terms of social progression but it was making valiant efforts in catching up with the new government at its helm. It was more noticeable in the more populated areas of the globe, with multiculturalism becoming almost a thing of fashion, but Heero didn't doubt it would be a very long time before they caught up to the colonies' one size fits all approach to society.

"I don't know where else to go," he confessed. The day he had found that file locked away on a secret server that had belonged to the late Dr. J, he was filled with a renewed sense of purpose. It was possible at that point that somebody out there belonged to him, and that was more than he could have expected out of his miserable existence. It was only now he was realising just how true that was.

Trowa, to his credit, didn't give him the look of pity he would have expected from Quatre or Duo, nor the hard-lined tough love he would have gotten from Wufei, and seemed to take his words for what they were without him needing to explain them. It wasn't a matter of _where_ exactly. It was a matter of what. Heero was supposed to be enjoying the peace they, together, had levelled the foundations for and he had no idea how to do it.

Trowa popped the last dumpling in his mouth and reached for his coffee before remembering that he had cast it aside for a reason, and fixing Heero with a small, genuine smile. "Quatre told me that in order to find peace, you to have to go where peace is. It's different for everybody. For me it was with him. For Wufei it was with the Preventers."

Go where peace is.

Heero wasn't one for the abstract. He had been taught to take things quite literally; things tended to go wrong if orders were taken any other way. He let the words wash over his mind and he wasn't entirely surprised when blue eyes and long, golden hair flashed across his memory. She was, after all, as literal a definition of peace as it got. But what did surprise him was how much it made sense to him, when she had so often made no sense at all.

"You look like you've hit the mark," Trowa prompted, packing away their discarded wrappings into the paper bag before standing with his jacket in hand, "though I don't think you expected to. I have to go. Wherever you end up, let me know."

Trowa held out his hand and Heero pulled himself out of his own head before clasping it firmly in gratitude. He didn't need to say his thanks; somehow he knew that the taller man didn't expect it and would reject it if offered.

As he watched the Heavyarms pilot disappear down the long stone steps back down the mountain, there was no more company to be had than his head and his newfound sense of direction.

Relena was a unique presence in his life, carrying the legacy of his one-time mission into its ultimate purpose. While they had never quite defined it, he would comfortably call her a friend, albeit in the oddest circumstances. They hadn't seen each other in nearly five years. She had grown up in front of the entire world's eyes, broadcast on every page and channel under a bright spotlight, and he found himself checking often the small signs, digging where he technically shouldn't, just to make sure she was okay.

But he had been as neglectful as a friend to her as he had been to the other pilots. He didn't communicate much about himself nor did he do so often. But unlike the other pilots, she had no way of telling if he was even still alive and Heero thought then how odd it was that she had never made the efforts to find out for herself. It was a thought that left him feeling an odd sense of sudden trepidation. Would she even want to see him again?

Heero took a deep breath and looked up at the clear sky, watching the odd wisp of white cloud float by. It wasn't too far from here that he had first crash landed into her life and he found it strange that this was the first time he'd thought of the fact since arriving in Japan. It was one of the most defining moments in his life and he'd pushed it aside, like any other memory as mundane as brushing his teeth.

And in that moment it was decided. He may not find what he was looking for, but as a place to go, Relena was the best offer he'd had in years.

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Next chapter posted on Saturday.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm on schedule! That's…new to me. I'm not sure I like it.

Thank you those who reviewed last time. My inbox becomes so awesome when you do that.

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A House Upon a Rock

Part 2 – Impose on the Neighbours

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Relena didn't ask for much, but one thing she absolutely insisted upon was half an hour during the working day to herself. She loved her work. Her work in many ways defined her. But she found that as her youthful innocence began to leave her, so did her never-ending patience for biased old men and lobbyists with hidden agendas. This half hour of the day was a vital component of staying on top of her form and it was precious to her.

The short walk from the ESUN embassy to the small, charming tea shop in one of Brussels' many narrow alleyways was in itself an instant refresher, the slight chill in the air taking the edge off of her where she had been so busy and bustling not minutes prior. It felt good to walk, stretching her legs after far too long sat among the ranks of the unified government. She loved her job…but sometimes she felt she should campaign for regular tea breaks as a human right.

The tea shop was instantly inviting, a rush of warm air hitting her skin as soon as she opened the wood-paned door and a little bell announced her presence. "Ah, Little Miss. You'll be glad you came here today," the portly shop keeper announced in his deep baritone. He wasn't the sort of man one would expect to run a tea shop, others in the area often being championed by overly attractive women who fancied themselves ladies of society, but he was the best at his trade. There wasn't a leaf in the world the greying man didn't know how to grow, brew and serve and every cup came with the most expertly crafted cake for companionship.

"Good afternoon, Big John. You've been hinting at this secret shipment for the last week. Is today the day you finally deliver?" She teased, eager to try this new leaf he'd been bragging about for her last few visits. Big John was a king of his craft and loved tea as a whole but it took something very special to get him so worked up. He held up a chubby finger and crooked it, beckoning her closer and she couldn't help the smile on her face as she obliged.

"The first cup is yours, Little Miss," he murmured to her, as though a great secret, "The first dose of magical perfection for the finest palette in Brussels."

She gave a slight chuckle as she planted a small peck on his stubbled cheek in thanks and walked to her usual seat by the window, a small table for two that seemed to always be awaiting her custom. She unbuttoned her coat and shrugged it off of her shoulders, not caring when the ends fell onto the old rug below. She resisted the urge to pull out her data pad as she waited for her tea to brew, a rule she imposed on herself during time meant to be hers, and within a couple of minutes, a small glass teapot and ceramic cup and saucer were placed in front of her.

"Thank you," she smiled, as Big John gave her an exaggerated bow and moved back into his little kitchen. The tea was an interesting one, whole leaves swirling around the steaming glass pot and leaving a reddish orange trail in their wake. A type of redbush, perhaps?

She leaned forward, peering into the side of the teapot and watching the swirling colour darken as condensation caressed the sides. It was almost hypnotic and it wasn't until a masculine voice, smoother and more subdued than Big John's, broke through her rapt concentration that she realised someone else had seated himself at the other end of her table.

"It's still tea, no matter how hard you stare at it."

She straightened up so fast she nearly knocked the precious beverage clear off the table, scrambling to catch the teacup that had rolled onto its side and placing it back on the saucer. Heero Yuy was good at sneaking around, he'd had to be, and at one point in her life she'd learned to feel his certain presence at her shoulder. But at that moment, either he had gotten better or, more likely, he'd been out of her life for so long she'd lost her touch.

"Heero?" She sputtered, grabbing a napkin to mop up the slight spill from the pot, "What's happened?"

She assumed that if Heero was here, now and without warning that something must be going on. He was always keeping a diligent eye on things, and had promised her in a roundabout way before leaving her care that he'd be around if needed. But by the way his mouth turned to a displeased frown she realised that she might have gotten that wrong. She shot him an apologetic look; he didn't need an excuse to see her.

_But after five years, what else should I expect?_

She didn't have expectations of him. The boy that had left her home at the end of the second Eve war, bandaged but broken in ways she couldn't heal, was still trying to find out what he expected of himself, let alone what others should expect of him. She wanted him to be happy and saw him disappear down the length of her driveway with all the hopes for him that he refused to have for himself. But, she selfishly admitted, she couldn't stop herself from thinking after him and those moments were more than a little bit lonely, as though the extraordinary boy that had changed her life had never existed at all, like dream in her head. In those times she felt she would have lit up like the sun if he'd so much as sent her an email. It was unfair of her, so she pushed those thoughts back where they belonged and her face bloomed into a smile she couldn't stifle.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, Heero?" She poured a cup of the brewed red leaf and sat back against her chair, peering up at him over her teacup. It was only then that she really saw him. While five years seemed to have had no effect on her other than to make her feel ever so slightly haggard and miraculously give her chest size a little bit of a boost, the boy in front of her was very much a man. Much about him was the same, his messy dark hair and eyes as deep as space itself, but he was tall even when seated with the curves and ridges of sinuous muscle forming gracefully against his slender frame. She had considered catching up with him in her office but with the women she worked with, it would be like letting a goat loose in the lions' den.

Heero regarded her teacup for a second before flicking his eyes over the collection of green teas lining the display behind her. She didn't know he had a thing for tea. Big John didn't even need to be asked, and within a minute he was bringing another steaming pot to the table. Heero looked at her with slight surprise at the gesture, but he nodded gratefully at the older gentleman and poured a cup of his own. "Do you come here often?" He asked.

"Only every day," she responded, the tang of rooibos cleansing her tongue, "Big John is my soul mate. And yours by the looks of it."

Heero started as he looked into his cup and realise he'd almost instantly drained half the cup. Oh yes, he definitely liked tea and Relena felt a little bubble of happiness knowing she and Heero had something outside of a warzone they could bond over. "I'm sorry. For not calling."

She waved off his comment, though the words brought back the slight sting of his transgression. "Or write. Or text. Or point a gun at my head. I'll be jealous if another woman has had that pleasure."

She wished she could take the words back as soon as they were out of her mouth; Heero wasn't a person she would historically recall getting the joke. So when the corner of his lips turned into something just shy of a smile, something that held an almost playful quality to it, she couldn't have been more unprepared. And five years suddenly seemed so much longer.

"Don't worry," he mocked, "there's a shortage of women as willing as you to get yourself killed." His face turned into a frown. "You've been reckless again. I read the report about your conference last month. Wear the Kevlar."

"When they make it in a presentable style, I may consider it." She rebuked stubbornly. As soon as this new, older, _smirkier_ Heero had come he'd gone again, and there was something about old Heero as she knew him that brought out the stubborn streak in her. In truth, she knew she should wear the Kevlar, but she'd gotten complacent after so long with incident and forgotten that there were people out there who wouldn't think twice about emptying a magazine into her chest.

Heero stared at her challengingly before realising that arguing would be an uphill battle, sinking back into his own chair and draining the rest of his cup in one. "Do what you want," he sighed, finger tapping against the side of his cup as though thinking of how to say his next words. Relena couldn't remember a time the man in front of her was anything less than forthright. "I'm thinking of moving here."

For all the consideration he'd taken with his words they were short and to the point and she wondered briefly what else he wasn't telling her. Still, though, they came with an impact. Of all the reasons she could have conjured for Heero Yuy to suddenly show up in her life, she would never have once guessed that it was because he was considering _moving_. Right near her, nonetheless. She really shouldn't have been as happy as she was, but a wide smile crept onto her face regardless and it visibly took him aback.

"Are you joining the Preventers?" she asked. He'd once told her that he would consider a post on her security staff, but later decided that in order to live a new life he would have to stay away from action altogether. She wondered if he'd changed his stance on that. She couldn't think of any other reason he could possibly want to stay in Brussels.

"No," he answered, leaning in and resting his arms on the table, "but if you keep refusing the vest I may end up stalking you anyway." He glared at her, but it lacked the potency she was used to from him, with an underlying warmth. She smiled.

"Is that a promise? How do I know you won't go running off again and the next time I see you will be wrinkled and grey?"

"Because I want to be here." He said, without skipping a beat, and the smile disappeared from her face at the utter sincerity expressed on his own. People always said the eyes were the window to the soul, and if the same was true for Heero then she had sudden reason to feel very special. "Because I think you can help me."

"Help you what?" she asked, brows furrowing in confusion. All this was awfully person for such a private man.

"I don't know yet." He admitted, eyes imploring her to understand what was ultimately unfathomable to both of them.

Relena blinked and held his gaze. The remaining tea in the pot had lot heat and she felt a little guilty for ruining Big John's special batch but nothing else in that moment seemed to matter more than the man asking for her help. He had never asked for help. More to the fact, he had made a point throughout their short history of helping her, even when it wasn't asked for. Somehow…it felt heart-warming to be asked, even when she didn't know what she was signing up for.

"Yes," she answered, with an exuberance that only the feeling in her heart could justify, "you shouldn't even have to ask."

Heero looked taken aback by the force of her answer but it was soon replaced by a small, soft smile. Relena felt her face heat slightly at the sight. She had only seen him smile once or twice, but both times were tinged with a sadness that robbed it of something she couldn't define. But here and now, on this man with such genuine gratitude and affection she wasn't at all expecting, it did everything to highlight just how very attractive he was.

She closed her mouth, suddenly aware that she was gaping and folded a hand over his. "So…you'll need a place to stay."

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Another chapter next week. Part 3 - Writing Blueprints


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